Mobile, EHRs to Fuel 24 Percent Health Care IT Growth by 2014: Report

The health care IT industry will grow 24 percent from 2012 to 2014, with spending focused on electronic health records and mobile health, according to a new study by global research firm RNCOS.

The health care IT industry will grow 24 percent from 2012 to 2014
and increase its spending by $40 billion through the end of 2011,
according
to the report U.S. Healthcare
IT Market Analysis by RNCOS, a global research firm based in India.
Currently, about $80 billion a year is already spent on health care IT, the firm reports. Government pressure to adopt EHRs
(electronic health records) will drive increased spending on health care IT hardware and services, RNCOS suggests.

Due to a demand for EHR applications, the health care IT software
market will grow in revenue from $6.8 billion in 2010 to $8.2 billion
in 2011, the firm reports. "In [the] U.S., the mandatory use of EHRs
has
boosted the markets for software in the health care industry," the
report
states.

Federal incentives awarded for meaningful use of the electronic
records are leading to added pressure to adopt health care software,
offered by companies such as Cerner, GE and McKesson.
Mobile health is another key reason for health care IT growth,
according to the May 2011 RNCOS report. "The buzz surrounding
mobile health care has steadily grown during the past two years," the
report states. "There's no question that this area holds enormous
potential
in terms of improving patient care in the U.S."
Physicians use mobile health applications to educate patients,
collect data remotely, communicate with distant workers, trace disease
outbreaks and aid in diagnosis and treatment.
Of physicians in the United States, 72 percent use smartphones, according to the report. In addition more than 10,000 mobile
health applications are available, with 6,000 on iTunes.
The m-health market will grow by around 22 percent from 2012 to 2014, with more than 20 percent of physicians owning iPads,
according to the report.
The American Telemedicine Association recently asked the FCC for
wireless airwaves dedicated to health care, though the government has
yet
to approve the measure, RNCOS noted.
A government push for hospitals to move from an ICD (International Classification of Diseases) 9 to the ICD-10 diagnosis code by
Oct. 1, 2013, is also driving health care IT spending, according to Rich Garnick, CEO of IT services provider Anthelio.
Anthelio is a competitor to Accenture, Dell Services (incorporating
Perot Systems) and Xerox's ACS in the health care IT services market.
"Analysts are estimating that the demand for IT [to] work around that transformation of ICD 9 to ICD 10 is analogous to the Y2K
initiative prior to Y2K," Garnick told eWEEK.
"So for any one treatment, instead of broadly defining a stomach
ache, they might get down to very minute clinical details so they can
track all the data and look for better outcomes," Garnick said.
"Because there's a big push by the health care system from the payer's
side and the government to get better analytic data on the outcomes
that we're
investing in, in our investments in health care."
IT hardware makes up 65 percent of the health care IT market, followed by software and services, according to the survey.
Another area that health care IT needs to invest in is interoperability of communications protocols for data, Garnick said.
The U.S. health care IT market is still fragmented since vendors operate many different
types of legacy data networks. The credit card industry is an example where data
interoperability works, according to Garnick.
"If you travel around North America or even around the world, a
credit card company knows
where [you are], who you are, what your spending patterns are and all
your history instantaneously if they need to," he explained. "It's
there
for fraud protection and other things. That is not available in the
health care system, and that's a big issue for efficiency and better
care."

Brian T. Horowitz is a freelance technology and health writer as well as a copy editor. Brian has worked on the tech beat since 1996 and covered health care IT and rugged mobile computing for eWEEK since 2010. He has contributed to more than 20 publications, including Computer Shopper, Fast Company, FOXNews.com, More, NYSE Magazine, Parents, ScientificAmerican.com, USA Weekend and Womansday.com, as well as other consumer and trade publications. Brian holds a B.A. from Hofstra University in New York.